Republicans are launching a voting bill debate that could last days or
even weeks
[March 18, 2026]
By MARY CLARE JALONICK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans launched an unprecedented effort on
Tuesday to hold the Senate floor and talk for days about a bill that
they know won't pass — an attempt to capture public attention on
legislation requiring stricter voter registration rules as President
Donald Trump pressures Congress to act before November’s midterm
elections.
The talkathon could last a week or longer, potentially through the
weekend, as Senate Majority Leader John Thune tries to navigate Trump’s
insistence on the issue and Democrats’ united opposition. Trump has
urged Thune to scrap the legislative filibuster, which triggers a
60-vote threshold in the 100-member Senate, or find another workaround
to pass the bill, but Thune has repeatedly said he doesn’t have the
votes to do that.
Instead, Republicans intend to make a long, noisy show of support for
the legislation, which would require Americans to prove they are U.S.
citizens before they register to vote and to show identification at the
polls, among other things. It's a risky strategy, with no guarantee it
will be enough for Trump, who has said he won’t sign other bills until
the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act — also known as the SAVE
America Act or the SAVE Act — is passed.
The floor debate is expected to eventually end with a failed vote.
Republicans need 60 votes to advance the bill to a final vote, but they
hold 53 seats, and all 45 Democrats and both independents, who caucus
with the Democrats, oppose it.
The debate will “put Democrats on the record,” Thune said. He added that
“how it ends remains to be seen."
The Senate voted 51-48 Tuesday to begin the debate, with Alaska Sen.
Lisa Murkowski the only Republican voting against moving forward on the
bill.
In a social media post on Tuesday morning, Trump issued a warning to any
Republican who doesn’t support the bill: “I WILL NEVER (EVER!) ENDORSE
ANYONE WHO VOTES AGAINST ‘SAVE AMERICA!!!’”
Creating strict voter registration rules
Trump says, without evidence, that Democrats can only win in the
midterms if they cheat and explicitly said Republicans need the SAVE
America Act to win in November. The House passed the legislation earlier
this year, but the Senate turned to other issues as it became clear that
Republicans didn’t have the votes to pass it.
But Trump made clear he wasn't satisfied and pushed the Senate to act.
The Republican president has said he won't sign other legislation,
including a bipartisan housing bill backed by the White House, until the
voting bill passes.
The bill contains a slew of provisions that Trump and his most loyal
supporters have pushed as part of a broad effort to assert federal
control over elections. It would require voters nationwide to provide
proof of citizenship when they register and to show accepted voter
identification when casting a ballot.
It would also create new penalties for election workers who register
voters without proof of citizenship and require states to hand voter
data over to the Department of Homeland Security so federal officials
could screen for voters who are in the country illegally.
Trump also wants new provisions added to the bill, including a ban on
most mail-in ballots.
“It’ll guarantee the midterms,” Trump said of the bill last week. “If
you don’t get it, big trouble.”
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President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order
regarding a task force on fraud in the Oval Office of the White
House, Monday, March 16, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia
Demaree Nikhinson)
Democratic opposition to the bill is firm
Democrats and many groups that champion voter access say there is
little evidence of noncitizens voting and say the bill would
disenfranchise millions of voters — including Republicans — by
creating new burdens to prove citizenship.
It is already illegal to vote if you are not a U.S. citizen, but the
bill would lay out strict new rules for paperwork that most people
would have to present in person to register to vote. Opponents of
the measure say those documents are not always readily available for
many people and argue that it would kill voter registration efforts
and unfairly penalize young people who are registering to vote for
the first time, married women who change their name and people who
cannot travel to present their documents, among other groups.
While Republicans have focused on the bill's new requirements to
show identification when they show up to vote, Democrats say they
are most concerned that the legislation would allow the federal
government to take voters off the rolls.
Schumer said that Democrats are not opposed to voter identification
but “this is about purging the voter rolls in a massive way, so you
never even get the chance to show a voter ID when you showed up to
vote."
Expect a show on the Senate floor
Trump, backed by Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, has pushed for a
talking filibuster, which would force Democrats to talk for days or
weeks to delay passage of the bill. But Thune and the larger GOP
conference rejected that idea, arguing that it would end in failure
after giving Democrats a stage and the opportunity to offer endless
amendments, potentially adding their priorities to the bill.
Republicans are instead taking over the floor with their own
speeches, proceeding under regular order but operating outside the
normal time limits that are customary when debating legislation.
Democrats are expected to answer with their own procedural hijinks,
potentially forcing Republicans to come to the floor at all hours
for votes, meaning they will need to stay close to the Senate for
the duration.
Lee said last week that it’s unclear how it will all play out. He
said he thinks Trump “understands that we need to put in an
aggressive effort here.”
“And a lot of that,” he said, "is going to have to be determined in
real time as we go about it.”
The extent of Trump’s satisfaction with the process, Lee said, “will
depend on whether, in his view, we gave it everything we have.”
On Monday night, Lee was rallying Trump’s base voters on X.
“Once we’re on this bill," he wrote, “we must stay on it until it’s
passed into law.”
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Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
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